Vote counting began in Haiti on Tuesday, in some areas by candlelight, after elections that were free of the political violence many had feared but were marked by stampedes that left four dead.
As the counting was under way in some centres late on Tuesday, voters elsewhere still waited their turn to fill ballots out at the small cardboard voting booths. Results were not expected before Friday.
International observers hailed Haitians’ determination to participate in the election for a successor to Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the last elected president, who fled the turmoil-torn Caribbean country two years ago. He now lives in Pretoria in South Africa.
Throngs of people walked for hours in the general absence of public transportation, only to find massive lines outside voting centres.
Hours-long delays in opening numerous voting stations stirred widespread anger, after vote officials failed to show up in time.
A policeman and a civilian died of gunshot wounds and four others were injured when a crowd rushed the gates of a voting centre in the northwestern town of Gros Mornes, a local radio station reported.
In Port-au-Prince, one man was asphyxiated, another died of a heart attack and several more were wounded during similar stampedes, officials said.
More people were reported wounded in other parts of the country, including a Chilean peacekeeper who was stabbed as he intervened in a fight outside a voting center.
Officials of the 9 500-strong United Nations military and police force in Haiti also said 22 people were wounded, four of them seriously, when the wall of a voting centre collapsed in St Louis du Nord.
The situation calmed down later in the day.
Electoral authorities ordered voting offices to remain open as long as people were still in line, but some voting centres did not get the message and shut at 4pm (9pm GMT) as initially scheduled.
At a school in the Bel Air shantytown near the presidential palace, about 16 people seated at two rickety tables counted ballots, as an observer from the US embassy watched on. The only light came from candles supplied as part of the electoral kit.
Despite problems during the elections, which had been postponed four times since November, international observers hailed the very fact that the voting could be held in a country terrorised by armed gangs, plagued by rampant poverty, and with a history of fraudulent elections and military coups.
A team of European Union electoral observers however criticised the long delays in opening the voting centres.
”A population that was so motivated deserved well-prepared and well-organised elections,” said Johan Van Hecke, the European deputy who led the 61-strong team.
But he said ”technical and logistical problems created considerable delays in opening the polls”.
Van Hecke, a Belgian, said everything should have been in place on the eve of the voting.
But he hailed the fact that while ”there were minor incidents, one cannot say there was a lot of violence”.
UN forces kept a close watch on the election.
Armoured personnel carriers were positioned in key areas of the capital, particularly near the notoriously violent Cite Soleil slum.
Thousands of people staged a protest march, decrying the delays and the fact that residents of Cite Soleil were forced to cast ballots in neighboring areas due to security concerns.
The protesters also chanted the name of former president Rene Preval, the front runner in opinion polls.
In the dirt-poor slums of the capital that have been hotbeds of violence, many back Preval (63) a former ally of Aristide.
”All here are voting for the same candidate,” said Wishick Dagrin (45) an office employee who stood in a long line outside a voting centre for Cite Soleil.
Dozens of others immediately cheered, chanting ”Preval, Preval”.
Better-off Haitians seem to have little sympathy for Preval, and generally favour industrialist Charles Henry Baker (50) or former president Leslie Manigat (75).
”We should not be afraid of change, we should not return to the old ideas,” said businessman Alex Turner, 53, who said he would vote for Baker, but would wait till the crowds thin out.
Opinion polls ahead of the election gave Preval a lead of at least 27% over Baker and Manigat.
Should no candidate obtain 50% of the vote, the front runner would face off in March with his closest rival.
Officials said it could take about three days to compile the results. – AFP
